Putin: Crimeans Decided for Themselves to Join Russia

Vladimir Putin

Russian President

“We know how many active and engaged people there are in Crimea and Sevastopol, people who take an active stand and are genuinely involved in the fate of their region and the fate of Russia as a whole. The best evidence of this was the events of Spring 2014, when people took their future into their own hands and decided themselves how and where they want to live.”

Addressing a gathering of the All-Russia People’s Front party on October 26 in Crimea, Vladimir Putin reiterated the Kremlin stance of 2014 that the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula became part of Russia by an “active stand” taken by “engaged people” who “decided for themselves” by referendum.

Putin is referring to the official results of the referendum that showed that 97 percent of Crimeans voted for integration of the region into the Russian Federation on March 16, 2014.

However, the referendum took place after Russian soldiers moved into the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula and seized Crimea.

Following the results of the referendum, Russia annexed Crimea later in March 2014, ignoring the statements by the U.N General Assembly, the United States, Ukraine, the European Parliament, numerous other governments, and a chorus of critics in the international press calling the referendum illegal.

After the vote, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in declaring the referendum invalid.